Fest Season!!

July 25 - August 17, 2009 Leading up to Oktoberfest in September almost all Bavarian towns have their own beer fest. In GAP, Garmisch has their fest first then after a short break Partenkirchen's fest begins. Both fests are similar but also different. Garmischer fest feels more like a party and draws a younger crowd while Partenkirchen fest has more traditional nights with an older/more traditional crowd. Each night has a different theme/entertainment. My favorite at Garmischer fest is the Stone lifting! Men try to lift a 500pound stone! They also have a party band night that plays fun, old songs and everyone stands on the tables and dances...I kept waiting for the table to break! At Partenkirchen fest I went to see the "whippers" as I like to call them - men stand on tables with cow whips and snap them in the air above the crowd's head. There are several different groups that rotate through the night leading up to the grand finale with all of them standing on the tables with their whips (as shown in the video below). Each group of "whippers" has their own accordian player that leads the beat of the whips. There's another night with "finger wrestling." Unfortunately, I didn't make it to that night of fest this year...hopefully next year!

Well, here's some pictuers of me, friends and the tent activities at the two fests.

Traditional bavarian garb called a dirndl - Yes, I bought one this year and I love it!! I feel so much more authentic walking into the beer tents wearing this!

Very traditional -- dirndl plus a maB (that's a liter) of beer! This just happens to be a Martzen, locally brewed by Lowenbrau (oh yeah, did I mention that Garmisch and Partenkirchen serve different beers at their tents....Garmisch serves Lowenbrau, Partenkirchen serves Ettaler (brewed by the monks in Ettal, half hour from Garmisch)

Jennifer and I with our pink dirndls

Kari, Bonnie, Shawnelle and I at Garmischer Fest

It's always a smart idea to reserve a table

Now on to Partenkirchen fest...

What's a beer fest without currywurst and pommes?!

Traditional Bavarian dancing

The Band (not pictured but noted...the same cute tuba player from last year was there again this year....people from Garmisch-Partenkirchen are known to live here their whole lives)

The whips!! He stood on our table later - check out the video below to get an idea of what this night at fest is like

And towards the end of the night people have drank enough beer to want to stand on top of their table and chug a maB of beer...exhibit A

The "Whippers" at Partenkirchen Fest



Traditional Dance at Partenkirchen Fest

MADONNA!!!!

August 18, 2009 Matt took me to see Madonna in Munich!!!!!!! It was the best concert I've ever been to!!! The concert started at 19.30 with Paul Oakenfold for one hour. After a 40 minute break Madonna finalllly hit the stage with "Candy Shop" off her new CD, Hard Candy :) What made the concert so spectacular was that Paul Oakenfold DJ'd throughout the concert so there wasn't a single quiet moment! He transitioned the beats from song to song and played 2 or 3 of Madonna's songs while she took a break....yeah, no 1/2 hour break or anything! and even when she took a short break you didn't really notice because the dancers were still out there entertaining! We felt like we were in one of Madonna's music videos the entire night! The choregraphics and lights were perfectly synched and continuous! Best concert ever!!!! Thank you Matt :)

Since the olympic stadium was so dark all night it was hard to get many good pictures/videos but here's a few.

Matt and I waiting for the concert to start at the Olypmic Stadium in Munich

Madonna!!

Madonna!!! She was hopping, skipping and dancing around alllll night!!! amazing!

Maddona performing "Give it 2 Me" -- it's two segments of a video pieced together

Hiking the Kramer

August 15, 2009 The Kramer is a a mountain in my backyard here in Garmisch. It's 1985m tall, which is about 6,512 feet! Yesterday Matt and I ventured towards the top of the mountain to touch the cross....all mountains in Germany have a cross on the peaks! Some mountains have a cable car that will take you to the top but the Kramer does not, so the only way to the peak is to hike up there. It was an awesome hike!! Once you are almost to the top you have to do some climbing, which was a little scary but Matt and some other Americans we ran into helped me through it. We started our hike to the summit via the Stepergalm (alm = hut) and then decended via the halfway house/St. Martin's hut. The views on the decend were amazing - we could see several valleys and mountains that we don't see everyday because they're behind the Kramer. I wish my photos showed how rugged the terrain was towards the top but oh well...I was too focused on not falling down the mountain and dying!! More pictures to follow later! :)

Matt and I at the top!!

That's the "trail" we followed down from the summit

I <3 the Alps!!

On Saturday Matt and I went hiking through the Hollentalklamm....roughly translated it means Hell's Gorge. Although it wasn't a bad hike at all!!! Once we made it to the "eingang" (start) hut it was easy trekking! It took about an hour to get to the start of the gorge then it was about a 3 hour hike through the gorge to the hut at the end. The views were well worth it!! Here's part of the hike through the gorge. There were many staircases along the edge of the gorge, bridges that crossed over the gorge, as well as tunnels through the mountain. :) More pictures to follow

Hollentalklamm

Blogging addict...Berlin Sneak Peak!!

Apparently I'm a blogging addict the past few days! I can't help it! :) Well, here are a few, and by a few I mean 11 because that was as far as I could narrow it down, photos from Berlin. Jenn and I were in Belrin July 30 - Aug 2. enjoy :) stories and more photos to follow soon

Memorial to the Murdered Jews

Memorial to the Murdered Jews

Berliner Dome

Reflection of the Pergamon Museum

Alexanderplatz

Alexanderplatz....remembering when the wall came down 20 years ago

Brandenburg Gate

East Side Gallery....artists are painting sections of the wall

Reichstag

Brandenburg Gate

Brandenburg Gate....Pariser Platz

A few more faves

So, I'm going through my many, many, many pictures taken in Malta and can't seem to focus on narrowing the mass down! So instead I decided I would post a few more favorites from Malta and Copenhagen! enjoy :)

Flower in a park in Copenhagen

Park in Copenhagen

Valletta, Malta

Comino!! Malta

Comino, Malta

Quick Update

Hi everyone!

I thought I'd post a quick update while I'm waiting for some friends to go to a softball game. The weather is finally nice so I want to be outside as much as possible!! but the weather forecast says it's supposed to be rainy this weekend...go figure! It's always nice when I'm at work and rainy as soon as I get off work!

In case you hadn't noticed, I snuck in a link to more pictures in the Copenhagen post. I'm still sorting through my pictures from Malta and Sicily...so far I have narrowed it down to 500....so I'm working on narrowing it down a little bit more!! For everyone's sanity!

After Malta expect posts from Garmischer fest, featuring yours truly in a dirndl!! and then Berlin pictures with my sister.

Ciao :)

July 3-12, 2009 Sheer bliss down south :) 7 days in Malta, 3 in Sicily! HOT, HOT, HOT! The weather was 30-36C/90-100F all week and it was so fabulous! Garmisch surely out rains Seattle hands down! So, the constant sun and heat of Malta was very welcome...even if I did complain at the time that I was sweating as soon as I stepped out the door of our apartment! Before going to Malta I started to wonder why we were going there (even though I did pick it out haha). I was starting to think we would do a few things and then lay around the pool the rest of the time...wrong! You know me better than that, there were tons of sights to see and I kept Mom and I busy everyday! I did allow us to have a half day on our last day. We walked around downtown/Saint Paul's Bay near our apartment; took a day cruise around the island, including a memorable stop at Comino and the Blue Lagoon; visited the new capital, Valetta, and the old capital, Mdina; shopped at a crafts village and glass blowing place; went to Gozo; saw the colorful fishing boats in Marsaxlokk and a few other small stops in between! After spending a week in Malta, we took a very, very early flight to Sicily (the transportation service picked us up at 3:50am or they were supposed to anyway...). Our trip to Sicily was short but we had specific plans: Taormina, Mt. Etna (the volcano), and Catania. As was the case in Malta, buses were pretty cheap in Sicily. 54 cents/ride in Malta...closer to 7euros/round trip in Sicily (that was for buses outside of the city...inside the city they were maybe 1 euro or something). Friday we caught the bus to Taormina, walked around town, then took the cable car down to Mazzaro (Taormina's Beach). On our way home we learned a $$$ saving trick from two German ladies traveling around. They "do everything on [their] own" and knew how to get to Etna without the 60euro tour guide/bus and without taking the 8:15am train from Catania. The trick is to take the 11:20 train from Catania to Nicolosi and then transfer buses. This option cost less than 6 euros/person/roundtrip and you don't have to spend all day at Etna...because the only bus back to Catania is at 4:30pm. Once at Etna we weren't even sure what we were going to do to occupy our 4-5 hours, good thing we didn't take the 8:15am bus! The cable car to the top was 27 euros/person and it didn't even take you to the highest point so that wasn't something we were interested in...after eating lunch on a terrace over looking Sicily's coastline and walking through all the shops we realized there were a few craters that we could walk around, so we did! The volcanic site was neat and the drive up to Etna was interesting to see - you could see all the lava and damage from previous eruptions (most recent, May 2008). Then, Sunday, our last day of vacation, we walked around Catania. As big as Catania is, it didn't take us as long as expected to see the highlights but it was still nice. We leisurely strolled along (well, I tried to leisurely stroll but I just can't help but to speed walk) and stopped for a gelato break and a few water breaks. After 10 solid days of vacation time I was not ready to come back to GAP or work...but here I am, in my single room blogging about my wonderful vacation!! More pictures to come later...as you can imagine I have lots of pictures to sort through between our three destinations.

Valletta, Malta's capital, at the bus terminal :)
yes, those are the buses we rode around in all week!

Blue Lagoon, Comino (there are only 8 inhabitants on the island of Comino)

Mom and I in Dwejra, Gozo...getting ready to see...

The Azure Window!!

Marsaxlokk, traditional Maltese fishing village

Mt. Etna, Sicily (Europe's largest active volcano)

Catania city center - Duomo and elephant statue

More Malta Pictures

Copenhagen Sneak Peak

June 26-29, 2009 Mom came to visit! First stop, Copenhagen. She flew from Dulles to Munich via Amsterdam, then hopped on a plane with me to Copenhagen...so she had no time for jet lag! While in Copenhagen we saw all the main attractions, including the little mermaid, twice since it was so close to our hotel. We also rode the train that connects Denmark to Sweden! So, we were in Sweden for a day...who does that?! :) Malmo, Sweden was a small town and the boat canal didn't offer much in the way of beautiful views...more industrial than pretty but it was still nice. We ate lunch at the only cafe in one of the parks/gardens and had the best scones with cream cheese and jam, so good it inspired our breakfast choice for our week in Malta! The weather was pretty nice - not too hot, not too cold - just right :) On another note, the one thing that stood out the most while in Copenhagen was how expensive everything was!! Copenhagen was definitely the most expensive city I've visited since moving to Europe!!! Average meal dish cost $20! No matter what it was - pizza, sandwich, etc. and public transportation was also pricey and less than convenient. The trains/metro sort of circled the central area of the city but didn't take you to the meat of the city...but all in all it was a great trip! Mom nor I had ever been to Denmark and Scandanavia was a stark contrast to our next trip, Malta and Sicily!!

walking through Kastellet, a fortification with a church and a windmill

so many bikes in Copenhagen!

sunset from our hotel balcony

Nyhavn - the hangout street for locals and tourists

Nyhavn, again

More Pictures

Hallstatt

June 12-14, 2009 Road trip with the girls, Bonnie and Natalie, to Hallstatt to include a stop at a huge rodelbahn and a visit to the world's largest ice cave in Werfen.

*More pictures and stories to come later!!*

Hallstatt on Hallstatter See

Boat ride around the lake

Fresh Laundry :)

Girls on the lake (Bonnie, me, Natalie)

Bonnie and I with our magnesium lamp....getting ready to go into the Ice Caves

More Pictures Here!